The (New) Old Guard Of American Whiskey

By Richard Thomas

The last few years has seen a changing of the guard in the American whiskey industry, as a handful of senior figures have retired or passed away. In an industry where a master distiller might measure his tenure in terms of twenty or thirty years, that implied transition is a big deal.

However, it is best to view this handover to a new generation as something that is progress, one that began several years ago and is only now nearing completion. A review of who has their hands on the valves at America’s distilleries reveals several key figures who have spent a decade or more as master distiller, yet only a few would widely be considered as part of an “old guard.” What is most interesting about these well-established figures, as we shall see, is how they have become engines of change in their own right.

Chris Morris
Successor to Lincoln Henderson and the second Master Distiller at Woodford Reserve, Morris took over in 2003. That effectively makes him the man behind all of the releases that expanded Woodford Reserve beyond its core bourbon: Double Oaked, Woodford Rye and the annual releases of the eclectic Master’s Collection.

Morris has spent his entire career at Brown-Forman, starting in 1976 in the company’s central lab. After the Labrot & Graham Distillery was renovated and opened to make Woodford Reserve in the mid-1990s, Morris became Henderson’s deputy. Six years later Henderson retired, ultimately starting his own whiskey company, Angel’s Envy, leaving Morris in the wheelhouse.

Since he is charged with running such a historic property, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Morris takes a keen interest in the history of Kentucky bourbon. As well as being historic, his distillery is also the prettiest in Kentucky, but it is special beyond even that. Labrot & Graham is that rarity in the United States, a mid-sized producer equipped with a trio of copper pot stills, not the more usual column still.

Eddie Russell
True, Eddie Russell only joined his living legend of a father, Jimmy Russell, as Master Distiller in January 2015. One might therefore just as easily think of the 55 year old as part of a new crop of master distillers, rather than as part of the old guard, and compared to his Dad he certainly would be.

However, it must be recalled that Eddie, a fourth generation Russell at Wild Turkey, had served as Associate Distiller and the de facto deputy, later even partner, of his Father for several years prior to coming to the fore. Even before his elevation, a handful of Wild Turkey releases bore Eddie’s fingerprints.

He also has somewhat different views on bourbon than his father, who never much cared for whiskey aged longer than 12 years. Eddie Russell had already been sharing center stage for years prior to becoming the performance’s leading man.

Harlen Wheatley
As strange as it sounds, one of the most innovative leaders in “big bourbon” is also one of the guys who has had a relatively long tenure as Master Distiller, now in its 11th year. This is the guy who first put a craft distillery inside his main establishment for the sake of tinkering, starting the spreading trend in the big leagues of the international industry; the guy who keeps over 5,000 barrels of experimental whiskey in his warehouses; the guy who built a laboratory warehouse to monitor environmental factors and how they affect maturing whiskey.

Wheatley went to work as a supervisor at Buffalo Trace in 1995, and five years later was made Distillery Manager. By 2005, he was Master Distiller. His passion for experimentation and the reputation his distillery has earned under his watch has led him to being nominated for a James Beard Award in spirits four times.

Greg Metze
In many ways, the 74 year old Greg Metze is comparable to recently retired Jim Rutledge of Four Roses. Both were men who spent their careers associated with one distillery, and at the time they started both institutions were part of Seagram’s.

Metze began work at what became MGP in 1978 as a shift supervisor, and stayed with the plant as it was sold to Pernod Ricard in 2001, and then when it became Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI) in 2007. It was around the time that Pernod Ricard picked up the Indiana distillery that Metze became its chief distiller. Metze’s time at the reins of MGP, now 15 years and counting, means almost all of the sourced and bottled whiskey on American store shelves was made under his stewardship.

Dave Pickerell
Some distillers are members of American whiskey’s old guard because they combine significant experience at a big company with equally significant experience as a consultant in America’s burgeoning craft sector. Dave Pickerell is foremost among them. After several years as Master Distiller at Maker’s Mark, he left in 2008 and became the whiskey expert behind WhistlePig, Hillrock Estate, and the replica of George Washington’s distillery at Mount Vernon.

Steve Nally
Another veteran Maker’s Mark man turned craft whiskey consultant is Steve Nally. The 65 year old Nally retired as Master Distiller from Maker’s in 2003. Several years later, Nally was called in to work on Wyoming Whiskey, and now he is the Master Distiller for the Bardstown Bourbon Company project, currently under construction.

Willie Pratt
Although Pratt didn’t come on as the chief barrel picker and Master Distiller at Michter’s until 2007, he was a key adviser for the company from its earliest days. Now known as “Dr. No” for his practice of postponing barrel dumps until, like Orson Welles said, they have reached “their time,” this Louisville native had a long career as a Brown-Forman man before his present gig, which saw him choose the stock that became the foundation for a highly regarded whiskey brand and help turn that bottler into one of Kentucky’s new mid-sized distillers.